Summary: The tourney at Storm’s End was supposed to be simple. Meet your betrothed. Perform. Endure. Make peace with your fate.
But Aerion Targaryen proves to be even worse than you imagined. To complicate things further, you find yourself thinking more and more about someone else, a certain Storm Lord you have no right to want. And then there is Daeron, the drunken prince, who sees more than he should and for the first time in his life decides to do something about it. But he will not be in the version of this story that gets sung.
You can't say when exactly - the dance, the cliffs, the game played in the dark of the night. Only that at some point, you stopped being careful. And the gods - the gods are always watching.
Content: slowburn, a bit of angst, forbidden romance, arranged betrothal with Aerion, found family trope in the background, mentions of abuse, abuse in later chapters, smut in later chapters, Aerion is a bad guy here, Daeron is a prominent character, no y/n used, afab bisexual reader
Author's note: I came back to writing after a long time and English is not my first language. The prose starts out a little rough but it gets progressively better, so please just keep that in mind. I'm working hard on making it the best it can be.
Chapter 1: The daughter of silent watching stones
Chapter 2: Welcome to the storm, I'm thunder
Chapter 3: We're drunk but drinking, sunk but sinking
Chapter 4: Welcome to my table, bring your hunger (smut)
Chapter 5: Fret not, dear heart, let not them hear (smut)
I will post chapter 6 in a few hours. And I don't want to hype it up too much but... it's literally one intense scene after another, it took all my brain power to write it and I really hope I delivered.
One thing about Aerion I wish more people got right is that... That boy does NOT shout. He is very secure in sense of superiority. He is delusional and will throw tantrums but the whole time his voice will not rise a single octave. The only time he shouts in akotsk is when to tells dunk to yield during the trial and that's the only time his voice feels out of control. Im sorry but he is a nonchalant ragebaiter there's no other way to describe him.
Interrupting the akotsk posting to yap about the Werwulf movie.. I saw this lovely little family on the movie trailer and I'm so fond of them already!!!!!! Here's the og scene 👇🏻
…do you think, during his year of isolation, that Tara ever sat on Gale's chest while he was asleep and purred to try to heal the orb because it's like an ingrained biological cat type behaviour?
I don't remember the last time I was quite this excited about a skin that I'm making. I have no idea if all of this will end up in the final version, but I'm just having so much fun with seeing what I can actually do that I wanted to share some work in progress shots.
(honestly? the hardest part has been finding the images. any tips on where to get medieval illuminated artwork would be much appreciated!)
In the first image, the AO3 title and the lady/dragon are separate images so on a desktop monitor the AO3 part is on the left and the dragon piece is on the right.
Editing to add the github link: get the skin here!
‘I propose a game.’ He breaks the silence, the corner of his mouth lifting slowly. ‘You ask me any question you want and I will answer. With complete honesty. And then I get to do the same.’
A little illustration for chapter 4 of my Lyonel Baratheon fic
Disliking The Witcher tv series is kinda like disliking Rings of Power, in a sense that I always have to add that it's not about "the series is too woke" or anything like that (The Witcher books are very left-leaning already, they're explicitly anti-bigotry, pro choice and feminist and that's a lot to get from a random man in 90s Poland ok). I don't care about Yennefer not being white or anything, she could look older, sure, but honestly the actress is fantastic so I don't care that much (they could give her nicer hair tho, stop with the dyson waves people). I don't care about Jaskier being bi, because in my head he already is (BUT RADOWID???? WHY????). I dislike the series because it's actively freaking bad, especially when you know the source material. Like, with this budget we could've had a great series and instead we have... this. First season was mostly ok, then it started getting weird. And it's so sad because we probably won't get another screen adaptation for some time and The Witcher is so dear to my heart.
And the worst part is when you say you don't like it and somebody agrees with you and you have to dance around the topic to make sure they are a book fan and not just a bigot. Makes the fandom experience really exciting, right?
And also, I need to add, the netflix series is trying to be progressive but in the most pop-feminist way. While erasing the actually smart themes that are in the book.
The pro-choice argument the books make, concerning Geralt and his mother, Yen's inability to have children and later Milva's pregnancy. It's always treated with the utmost seriousness and total acceptance that whatever a woman choses is her choice. Even if she regrets the consequences, even if she's not sure, her autonomy is the priority.
The abusive relationship between Ciri and Mistle is changed to be a simple romance. The rats are supposed to be a dark twist on robin hood. War-scarred children who hurt each other and others around them because they got destroyed by the war around them.
Yen is basically a morally correct heroine in the tv show. In the books she is a grey and complicated character. She does bad things sometimes. Her relationship with Geralt starts out as toxic and it evolves into something beautiful only when they learn to love. They are two people who have been othered their whole lives, they both think they're unable to love and they need to unlearn that to be good to each other. The push and pull between them is caused by Geralt's wish and there is an explicit question about Yen's autonomy in all of this, that's the foundation of the whole Istredd fiasco. (The wish is not stated explicitly, I personally believe that Geralt wished to have a family with her, that's why she asks him afterwards if that is even possible because they're both infertile. It would also explain why the ending of the books is what it is. Because when their dream comes true, the ending happens.)
Destiny is treated as an all powerful force in the tv show. The books whole argument is that Ciri wnats to choose her own path.
And there is probably a lot more but those are my biggest problems.
Disliking The Witcher tv series is kinda like disliking Rings of Power, in a sense that I always have to add that it's not about "the series is too woke" or anything like that (The Witcher books are very left-leaning already, they're explicitly anti-bigotry, pro choice and feminist and that's a lot to get from a random man in 90s Poland ok). I don't care about Yennefer not being white or anything, she could look older, sure, but honestly the actress is fantastic so I don't care that much (they could give her nicer hair tho, stop with the dyson waves people). I don't care about Jaskier being bi, because in my head he already is (BUT RADOWID???? WHY????). I dislike the series because it's actively freaking bad, especially when you know the source material. Like, with this budget we could've had a great series and instead we have... this. First season was mostly ok, then it started getting weird. And it's so sad because we probably won't get another screen adaptation for some time and The Witcher is so dear to my heart.
And the worst part is when you say you don't like it and somebody agrees with you and you have to dance around the topic to make sure they are a book fan and not just a bigot. Makes the fandom experience really exciting, right?
Say about Maekar what you want, but he certainly never threw his boy into the air and caught him again to celebrate a tug of war they won together like a proud father.
As much as I love Maekar, that man was not built to be a father. Just look at the state of his kids bro... Dunk on the other hand... Dunk was built to be not only a father but a DAD.
warnings: none, family fluff stuff, some suggestive talk (i guess?)
pairings: Lyonel Baratheon/Reader
wc: ~ 900
a/n: the number of children is unspecified, tho as reading you can think of ~5/6 (🙈🙉🙊)
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel/husband!Lyonel who is all “she may be your mother but she is my wife first. You will have to deal with me now..” whenever children decide to not listen to you
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel/husband!Lyonel who sits in the solar fighting with letters and petitions, cursing under his nose until the closing of the door and quiet voice distracts him.
“Father, I fucked up,” it takes everything in him not to snort at the confession.
“First of all, language. Secondly, what happened?” he asks putting the child on his lap.
“I told mother I like you better,” he waits in silence for following explanation, “That you’re more fun and don’t put me in timeout.”
“Young lady, you perfectly know I always back your mother so if she says you need a timeout, it means I also say that. So you will go and sit through your consequences then you are going to apologise to your mother, and I’ll check on her.”
And he sets the offspring free to search for you, hidden in your shared bedroom looking miserable. You didn’t move as you heard him approaching, just sniffled one more time as the mattress dipped under Lyonel as he sat next to you.
“Are you alright?” he inquiries and swipes the remaining tears from your cheeks away.
“Can I sometimes hate my children?” your head takes its place on his shoulder as you look for comfort in his embrace. He just hums in silent agreement, “You know it’s all your fault really? I’m no fun and cry at any given opportunity because of this.”
You point at your pregnant belly, carrying one more Baratheon to disappoint. Loud chuckle rumbles through your husband’s chest as he kisses crown of your head.
“I can take the blame for that but I am always your knight in a shiny armour first.”
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who is a type of a father that storms into the nursery and goes, “I need a volunteer.”
“What have you done?” the children are not even surprised by his sudden entrance.
“Fine. You’re a good daughter. My love, I have her!” and storms out
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who knows that you forbade children from eating any extra sweets before night, but still creeps in the kitchen’s pantry in the dead hour to snack on some lemon cakes with two of your oldest children. Hushing each other on the way back, just to find you waiting in the doorway
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel/husband!Lyonel, whose play time with children would often end up with him hidden in your wardrobe, for you to bump into him occasionally.
“Remind me, why there is a pack of wild children running around the castle searching for you?” you ask and sit next to him, sliding in between the dresses.
“Because every two or so years you ask me for one more. And who am I to deny anything to my sweet wife?” he gives you a wink, “Besides we play hide and seek.”
“Fair enough. You want some?” you hand him a piece of blueberry pie.
“Didn’t you say no sweets before dining?” he teased.
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” you shrug and eat the cake with wide grin, hearing a thunder of feet approaching.
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who you would find in the nursery, heavily asleep with your youngest toddler on top of him, secured by his hand. two other children also snoring in the close proximity, between evident after-battle disarray of pillows, wooden swords and other toys
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who is a world-class toddler-tossing champion since forever. The moment this man is sure the head won’t fall off the child, it’s over. Throwing left and right, up and down into pillows, the louder the cheerful babbling the higher the babe goes, echoed by Lyonel’s booming laughter.
You on the other hand, for your own sanity you decided not to watch after that one time when the child was literally launched into air and he almost failed to catch it. If the look could kill you’d be a widow and babe would be sitting with joyful tears on its incinerated remains of your spouse.
Later you would scold him, “do you know how long it takes to produce a baby?! You’re not wasting my work!!”
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who, when given time, would carve small figures for children to play with. Mostly various animals or beasts from legends, to the extent your children end up with a literal zoo in their nursery
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who would set up a tent pavilion just because his daughters wanted to sit in a meadow the whole day and make flower crowns, and because he would rather die than any of them would get uncomfortable
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who likes spending time on said days laying on the grass or pillows, listening to childish chatter, accepting all flowery ornaments they produced, adorning himself with them to the point that he resembles more of a maypole rather a lord paramour, when the whole pack returns to the storm’s end
⋆˚࿔ dad!Lyonel who prefers to check on the children at night himself, especially when they are ill. sits with them, reads books or tells stories to boost morale; makes sure they took medication and the temperature is slowly lowering. he would stay vigilant to any sign of distress or discomfort, doing his best to ease the pain. though acting all cheerful and fun, he’s deeply concerned and terrified something worse will follow if only he closes his eyes
a/n 2: part 2 somewhat on the way? also if anyone wants to babble about family guy Lyonel pls do 🩷
